What now for Charles Flanagan?

Well-known member

Charles Matthew Flanagan (born 1 November 1956) is an Irish Fine Gael politician who has served as Minister for Justice and Equality since June 2017. He has been a Teachta Dála (TD) since 1987, currently for the Laois constituency. He previously served as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade from 2014 to 2017, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs from May 2014 to July 2014 and Chair of the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party from 2011 to 2014.

That Charles Flanagan has been a TD since 1987 is mind boggling - 30 years in the Dail with no noticeable achievement I'm aware of and now it's quite possible that 6 months into his biggest role he's likely to be remembered mostly as the guy who lied to his Taoiseach and precipitated an election.

To me his single most obvious attribute was the whiney nature of everything he said - a kind of permanent incredulousness and indignation that made it impossible to actually hear what he was actually talking about - he always seemed out of his depth.

The timeline looks very bad for Charles - he "found" something he didn't want to know existed - something that wasn;t supposed to exist, but then failed to inform the boss who smugly informed the Dail that it didn't exist.

I know all the focus is on Frances Fitzgerald, but I think it's only fair, really, to share the limelight with Mr. Flanagan.